Weekend wrap: Expeditionary links

14 Oct 2011

This was a heavily armored week of ground-pounditry in Washington, what with AUSA and all, so there were many stories we did not get a chance to write about. One of them was Thursday's observance of the U.S. Navy's 236th birthday -- pictured is Culinary Specialist Seaman Lindsey Ocampo helping celebrate by conducting birthday cake distribution operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, at sea.

Other stories:

• Bloomberg's Brendan McGarry and Tony Capaccio report that Boeing's JTRS GMR is donesville -- DoD has had enough and it is canceling that part of the program "based on growth in the unit costs."

• Marcus Weisgerber of Defense News reports that Congress just will not let the military services experiment with a light, propeller-driving attack aircraft over in Afghanistan, no matter how much commanders want to.

• One of Tom Ricks' correspondents wants critics of Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal to explain how the military somehow continues to function even though it now includes openly gay service members. In other words, he argues, their fears were unfounded.

• Galrahn has really soured on Air-Sea Battle, and wrote this week that Puzzle Palace infighting and political sensitivities may keep it from ever seeing the light of day. It's incredible when you compare today's grim realities about this to the almost euphoric enthusiasm that people around town once had.

• Over at DefenseTech, cyber-security contributor Kevin Coleman tells John that he thinks all this talk of the virus that has affected the Air Force's drone controllers is "overblown."